Earn Money Using Social Networking

[MichaelCorfman]

I'm very pleased to announce the official launch of our first application that enables portal webmasters to earn affiliate revenue using social networking.

Our new "Places I've Played" Facebook application lets players you refer share with their friends all of the online and land-based places where they've gambled as well as their experiences and opinions. And when their friends visit the online gambling sites they mention you earn affiliate revenue.

To try out the "Places I've Played" application, just follow the link Try Out "Places I've Played."

Players can share both online and land-based locations where they've played

To start earning affiliate revenue we have a complete back-end system designed just for portal webmasters. Clicks to online gaming sites are sent via links you provide that include your affiliate codes, ensuring you receive credit from the affiliate programs with which you work. Besides earning affiliate revenue, you can also promote your portal website, or a group or fan page you have established for your business on Facebook. To access the back-end system to earn affiliate revenue just select the "Places I've Played" option under "My Account" in the top navigation bar on the GPWA website (you must be logged in for this option to appear). There you will find a complete overview of how the system works.

A tremendous amount of effort went into creating this application. We've had many members of our staff involved in its development over the past half year. And over 25 GPWA members helped by agreeing to participate in the beta-test over the past several months. A complete list of who participated in the beta-test process is available in the thread beta-test participants.

As with all version 1.0 applications, we still have a lot of work that needs to be done to have an application that achieves our vision. So our product development effort will continue. Please let us know what you think of the application and how it can be improved. We have a special new section on the GPWA site for feedback. Visit the section "Facebook Places I've Played Application Bug Reports and Feature Suggestions" when you have feedback to submit.

Michael

[aksana]

Thanks Michael for letting us know. Last months I was so busy that had no enough time to test your application properly
Sorry for that.
My big plans make me crazy
I'll take a look at it.

[matted]

Michael - Can you just confirm that this app is viral? So friends of friends... of friends... etc (infinite levels)... all get tagged back to my original installation and thus the links are the ones i set up?

I just dont see any documentation which would confirm this...

[Vrindavan]

is the application just for use within facebook account only ?

[MichaelCorfman]

Originally Posted by matted

Michael - Can you just confirm that this app is viral? So friends of friends... of friends... etc (infinite levels)... all get tagged back to my original installation and thus the links are the ones i set up?

I just dont see any documentation which would confirm this...

Matt,

The application is viral, but not to infinite levels. I'll explain the ways in which it is viral below:

1. If you say that you visit an online gaming site, then the links to the online gaming site provided in your profile (which can be viewed by your friends and by others in your regional network on facebook) and the links in the Places I've Played notifications facebook sends to your friends will all carry your affiliate codes (assuming you have provided them), so you will earn 100% of the revenue on those links.

2. If someone signs up to use the application based on your invitation, or based on a link you provide on your website or in an e-mail, then their links are considered the same as yours as indicated above. So, if you consider these folks to be first level, then the notifications to their friends, and views by their friends and others in their regional network (the second level) will all carry your affiliate codes, so you will earn 100% of the revenue on those links.

3. In addition to the affiliate links going out to a second level as specified above, there is also promotional activity for a webmaster's website and any facebook group or fan page promoted by the webmaster. Players that visit the webmaster's website or that join the webmaster's facebook group or become a fan of the webmaster can then be signed up to use the application as identified in point 2 above, extending levels further.

4. The exception to item 2 is that is someone is a portal webmaster registered on the GPWA website who signs up and associates their facebook account with the application then they will carry their own affiliate link after that time. Simply put, we can't give 100% credit to two different webmasters at the same time, and didn't want to get bogged down in a lot of additional application complexity to handle this situation in a more elaborate fashion.

My thinking has been that the application, with the current levels, allows a webmaster to cast a net that propagates links to friends of those with whom they have a current relationship with 100% credit, and then to further extend relationships based on the extended circle that they attract to visit their website.

We do keep track of signup relationships, so we could do something at additional levels in the future. However, it cost a fair amount to develop this infrastructure, and there will be continue expenses to support and maintain it, so we need to have some way of recovering at least a portion of our expenses. To go out more levels than those already provided we would need to move to a model where things were shared, and the complexity and development costs are something that will only make sense if things unfold over time in a way that too much of the value happens at levels further out. Right now we think that won't be the case, but until we have some data about the application and how it spreads it will be really hard to know for sure one way or the other.

Michael

[MichaelCorfman]

Originally Posted by Vrindavan

is the application just for use within facebook account only ?

The application can be promoted both from within Facebook and outside Facebook. At the present time the application itself only runs within Facebook, although our expectation is that we will extend it to other platforms in the future.

Michael

[daminc]

Could you please explain WHERE can I submit my affiliate link for any online casino that I have played?

Say, I added 32red
http://apps.facebook.com/placesivepl...f&installed=1#
Javascript Link leads to a page about 32Red.

Then there's a link to this page:
http://www.placesiveplayed.com/casin...uid=1013626002

And finally if I click "Play now" on this page then I will be redirected to 32Red casino with "32RedBanAff5070" affiliate code, which is certainly not mine

I don't see any place for my link other than "Site User Handle:"

[CityGuard]

Originally Posted by daminc

Could you please explain WHERE can I submit my affiliate link for any online casino that I have played?

The application management is built into the "My Account" dropdown in the main GPWA navigation -- we've added a "Places I've Played" option to that menu. I think the confusion arose from Michael's initial post referred to the "My Account" in the top navigation but hadn't clarified that it is the navigation on GPWA.org rather than within the placesiveplayed.com website or the Facebook website. He's now edited it so it should be clarified for other readers in the future.


Here is a direct link to the Places I've Played Affiliate Interface. This is the entry page for the interface and gives an overview plus has a navigation linking to all the different management options -- adding affiliate links, specifying a portal to promote, specifying groups or fan pages to promote, campaign stats, etc. So it is the place to start if you're looking to get more acquianted with the application first.

In terms of just getting the basics running here are direct links to two of the campaign set-up pages:
1) The first step will be to connect your GPWA account to your Facebook account. The "account association" page is here.
2) The second step is adding affiliate links, which is done at here. Note the process for adding links is based on searching for the gaming site rather than the affiliate program.


I'd like to make sure the set-up goes as smoothly as possible so if please feel free either post questions here or get in touch with me directly if there are other questions during set-up.

MSN Name = stevenATcasinocity.com (change AT to @).
Yahoo/AIM Name = StevenCorfman
ICQ = 439451996
Phone = +1 617 332 2850 ext. 129

[matted]

Originally Posted by MichaelCorfman

Matt,

The application is viral, but not to infinite levels. I'll explain the ways in which it is viral below:

...cut to preserve space ...

Can I summarize what I think I read? Because this app, from my perspective, lost value to me without at least a couple levels of direct referrals...

• My friends (1st degree I invite) or anyone who signs up DIRECTLY from my invite get my affiliate links
• Friends of friends (2nd level and beyond) will see my portal or fan page only... I'm still not clear how this would work (how clear would my portal link be?), and it isn't easy to get an example.

As for all the other stuff, I'm glad you kept it simple. There is no need to worry about splitting referrals or such.

What I don't understand... While I may provide links to 30-50 casinos, that leaves hundreds of others which Casino City would still get credit for (even on my direct signups)... I'm sure those, if thousands of people install this thing, could make up for the development costs...

[CityGuard]

Originally Posted by matted

I'm still not clear how this would work (how clear would my portal link be?), and it isn't easy to get an example.

I've set up my account management to use the Casino City Fan page and the portal Online.CasinoCity.com. Here is an example of how your Fan page or group plus portal are promoted:

First page (within facebook, so no gaming sites or portals are linked to directly in order to remain very strictly compliant with Facebook rules). You can select a Facebook group about your site or a Fan page about your site to promote here. In the examples the Casino City logo displays because I've selected that as the fan page I am promoting.

When visitor clicks on "More Details" from the initial page they are taken out of facebook to placesiveplayed.com with pages that link to the casino site and are able to directly promote the portal. The second page examples include promotion of the fan page/group I've selected and above that also promote the portal with a direct link to it and a text description that you enter.

Example first page for land-based casino.


Example second page for land-based casino.


Example first page for online casino.


Example second page for online casino.



I am heading out soon but will add a feature request to have something like a "see what this does" functionality on the Fan Page/Group selection page and the Featured Site selection page within the management interface. Aside from increasing familiarity at the basic start-up, going directly to a live example would also make it easy for users to confirm that we have an up to date screenshot of the portal on file.

Hope this is helpful.